News from Latin America and the Caribbean

Jailed drug lord's sex tape sells in Caribbean

August 20, 2010 | 2:40
pm

It's selling like "hot bread" on the streets of Santo Domingo and it's the item "mas caliente" in San Juan. A DVD of a leaked sex tape belonging to a jailed Puerto Rican drug boss has become a sensation in the neighboring Caribbean capitals of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, even as authorities seek to suppress its sale and arrest pirating vendors.

Jose Figueroa Agosto spent more than a decade on the run while dominating narcotics trafficking routes to the United States through Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He was finally arrested July 17 by U.S. and Puerto Rican authorities after a chase in San Juan. Figueroa reportedly was wearing a wig and responded to a request for his name with, "You know who I am."

He faces multiple drug-related charges in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.

A book recently published by a government official in the Dominican Republic, "Figueroa Agosto: The Power of Narco," details Figueroa's exploits and knack with sea drop-off operations of illicit drugs. But many questions remain about the drug lord's reach inside governments and why he evaded capture for so long.

Figueroa's home video, reportedly showing him engaging in sex with several women, has only heightened his status, Time magazine notes. It is not clear how the video was obtained from the hands of police after it turned up in a raid last year at one of Figueroa's homes in Santo Domingo.

"The truth is these sort of videos aren't well-made, they're amateur," one porn producer told a Puerto RIcan news site. "The pornography is incidental. People buy it and see it because it's about Junior Capsula. He's an anti-hero, a big shot."